WEEKLY UPDATE - NOV 1

Welcome to the (belated!) Weekly Wrap Up! Last week was a big one for Edmonton City Council.

Zoning Bylaw Renewal passed last Monday with a number of subsequent motions to further strengthen the new regulations. I’ve put my thoughts together on this important decision here

In addition to Zoning Bylaw, we had our regular Council meeting and heard our bi-monthly update on transit and downtown safety. It was great to see numbers headed in the right direction, with September seeing the lowest incident numbers of the year. The gains we’ve made in safety are thanks to the efforts of multiple partners, including EPS, social service agencies, businesses and residents. We will continue to keep safety front and centre and I look forward to building on this great momentum.

We also heard from ETS staff about specific safety enhancement opportunities, including station activation, enhanced cleaning, and a station attendant program. We’ll debate these investments as part of our budget deliberations later this month.

The Community Safety and Well-being Grant’s remaining $5m budget was directed into a series of grants for the upcoming year focused on sector collaboration and prevented services that help keep all of us safe and well.

Winter is upon us and Council took the opportunity to invest additional dollars into snow clearing. It's been clear that additional funding is required to meet the expectations of Edmontonians and I’m happy to see additional investment moving forward.

Thanks for tuning in and hope you all had a happy Halloween!